W.H.Smiths here we come!

Since our supernatural thriller, The Bitter End, was published by Bloodhound Books last summer, co-author, Rob Tysall and I have had a busy time promoting it.

Firstly, a book signing in Hunts Book Shop in Rugby, which is Rob's home town. Hunts are a fabulous independent bookshop and couldn't have been more helpful to us.  The Saturday morning was particularly enjoyable for Rob as a number of his family popped in as well as old friends - one Rugby lady who he hadn't seen for 30 years! Obviously somebody from primary school!

We then had another signing at Kenilworth Books. Again a great independent bookshop who, like Hunts put on lots of author events. It's just fantastic to get bookshops such as these really helping and encouraging local authors.

Our signing at Kenilworth Books was an evening event which included a talk to a sit-down audience about how we collaborated on the book with questions and answers as well as signings. There was wine and nibbles and an enjoyable evening was had by all.

We were thrilled when local BBC Coventry & Warks Radio presenter, Vic Minett chose our book as her 'Book of the Week' and invited us into the studio to talk live about it, and our collaboration. We've both been on the Brody Bunch also on BBC Cov & Warks Radio a number of times, and we were also delighted to be interviewed by Neil Wilkes for Touch FM radio.

Our next event is a book signing at W H Smiths, Queens Road, Nuneaton. This takes place Saturday 23rd February from 11am-1pm. We are delighted that W H Smiths are giving authors - not just the big names, but local authors, the opportunity to come and sign their books. The staff have been so friendly and helpful in getting this organised, and we're looking forward to the event tremendously.

But prior to these events, we had our own launch when the book first came out, with a few friends at a local pub. it was great fun - but I couldn't resist giving Rob the chop!

The Bitter End is available at all good book outlets and Amazon in Kindle and paperback. Ask your local Waterstones, W.H.Smiths or independent bookshop and no doubt they will order it in for you, if it's not on their shelves already. Or contact me for a signed copy in the post.
ann-evans@btconnect.com

There's a full list of my books at the very bottom of this blog. Or visit: http://www.annevansbooks.co.uk

Discover more about The Bitter End here: http://thebitterend.org.uk/

Buy from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bitter-End-dark-mystery-twists-ebook/dp/B07F2GVQ6J

A Trailer for Celeste

I SUPPOSE authors are all constantly trying to find ways to tell the world about our books, and seeing as quite a few authors are now having trailer's made for their novels, I thought I'd give it a go, and see if it makes any difference to sales.

This was for Celeste, my YA time slip thriller, set here in Coventry, which is published by American publisher, Clean Reads, formerly known as Astraea Press.

Not being particularly technically minded to put a trailer together myself, I took up the offer of a fellow Clean Reads author in the USA, who runs Videos by O, creating videos for any budget. My budget wasn't very big, but that didn't make any difference to the effort that Opal put into the video, with her sending me mock ups throughout the process, and making the changes that I asked for.

Persuading my photographer friend, Rob Tysall (www.tysallsphotography.org.uk) to head into Coventry's City Centre with me a few weeks ago, we set out to take the necessary photos that I'd need to create the look that I wanted for the trailer. 

The story is about teenager, Megan Miller who moves to Coventry with her parents and starts to experience feelings of deja vu. These feelings become stronger and stronger and she gradually realises she has lived, and died before in Medieval times when her name had been Celeste. The story particularly revolves around the ruins of Coventry's old cathedral.

So photographer, Rob and I headed for the old cathedral, armed with a length of blue ribbon and my daughter's black hooded top. He took lots of different shots of the cathedrals and other atmospheric buildings nearby, which I have to say I'm really really pleased with.

It was a fun day, although I noticed a group of sightseers giving me a wide birth, as I stood in the shadows of St Mary's Guildhall with my hoodie hiding my face for one particular sinister shot. 

Back at the studio, Rob produced the images, and did quite a lot of photoshop 'magic' on the 'evil monk' shot you see at the end. Believe me when I say he did a LOT of photoshop work! I don't actually look like this - honestly!!

I then played about with the different photos, working out which order they needed to appear for the best effect, and used the blurb from the back of the book, in short paragraphs, to indicate which words went with each picture.

Finally it was emailed off to Opal who did her 'magic' adding music and a 'moving' effect, and following a few tweaks, hey presto all done!

Who knows if it will result in more sales, but anyway, it was good fun doing it. Here's the link if you'd like to see the finished result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFDBEt9o3Fw

You can purchase Celeste as an ebook or paperback:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celeste-Ann-Evans-ebook/dp/B00KQ8XIGE

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/celeste-6

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/celeste-ann-evans/1119649538?ean=9781500982492

Please visit my website at: http://www.annevansbooks.co.uk